FADO EMOTIONS HAVE A VOICE
Throughout her career, Carla Pires has accomplished to entertain audiences in Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America, with hundreds of concerts around the world. She has performed in prestigious venues such as Osaka Symphony Hall, Okayama Symphony Hall, Hiroshima Bunka Gakuen Hall, Kobe International House, Nakano Sun Plaza-Tokyo (Japan), Graz Opera (Austria), Vlaamse Opera Gent, Södra Teatern (Stockholm), Concertgbow, De La Mar Theater, Schowburg Roterdamse, Rasa (Netherlands), Cirque d’Hiver and Théâtre de la Ville (Paris), Teatro Solís (Montevideo), Festival de Musique Baroque d’Ambronay, Sommarscen Festival (Malmo) and many others.
Carla Pires began her singing career in 1993, participating in several musical projects, recording soundtracks and and playing roles as an actress for TV series in Portugal.
In 1996 she won the 1st prize at the Thessaloniki Festival (Greece), organised by the Societies of Authors in Europe on behalf of Portugal, with the theme “Canção do Vento e da Terra”, which was included on her second album: Rota das Paixões.
In 2002, , the year in which fado began to take over her main musical aspirations, she recorded the CD O Fado em Concerto with the classic Quinteto Amália, and from September 2002 to July 2005 she played the role of “young Amália” in the biggest musical ever produced in Portugal – the musical “Amalia”.
Carla Pires statement as Fado singer happens in 2004, when she joined the Portuguese artist agency and label Ocarina Music. This marked the beginning of her solo career. It was also the year in which she recorded her first solo studio album for Ocarina, Ilha do meu Fado. Some of the tracks on this CD have been included in several national and international collections.
In 2005, she was invited to represent Portugal at the World Expo in Japan, where she gave three concerts at the Oharu Auditorium on the occasion of PORTUGAL NATIONAL DAY AT EXPO 2005 AICHI, 24th MAY.
International concerts have been a constant in her career, highlighted by the opening concert of one of the largest festivals in Europe – Flanders International Festival, at the Ghent Opera, on 18 September 2010 and the showcase at Babel Med Music, Marseille (30 March 2012), the second largest world music fair in Europe.
Pires’ second album, Rota das Paixões, was released internationally, on the World Village/Harmonia Mundi label in May 2012.
The year 2014 began with a new experience. At the invitation of the renowned Portuguese choreographer Vasco Wellenkamp, Carla Pires embarks on a 42-date tour of the Netherlands with the performance Fado, Ritual e Sombras (Fado, Ritual and Shadows), a co-production with dancers from the Portuguese National Contemporary Ballet and the International Danstheater (Amsterdam) about Fado, with live music performed by the singer. This show won the Audience Dance Award 2014.
Parallel she has presented her solo concert -Rota das Paixões- in France, Switzerland, Spain, Austria, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina and Angola.
In 2015 [March (14, 18, 25) and April (10, 12, 17, 18, 23, 26)] – Carla Pires performed at Graz Opera in the piece “Malambo” which integrates the contemporary dance project “Fado, Ritual & Shadows”, with a new choreography by Vasco Wellencamp for the Oper Graz Tanzkompanie. The singer was accompanied by her three fado musicians and by the Grazer Philharmoniche Orchester.
Pires’ third solo album Aqui was released in 2016. Following the release of the album, 2017 saw the start of the “Aqui World Tour”, with concerts in France, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, Poland, the United Kingdom and a 14-concert tour of Japan, between 28 October and 14 November, at the best venues of the main cities: Kasaoka Civic Hall, Okayama Symphony Hall, Arkas Sasebo, Hiroshima Bunka Gakuen Hbg Hall, Higashi Kurara Hall, Konosu City Cultural Center, Izumo-Shi Shimin Kaikan, Kobe International House, Osaka Symphony Hall (2 concerts), Nara-Ken Bunka Kaikan, Wakayama Municipal Auditorium, Joyo City Cultural Center and Nakano Sun Plaza Hall (Tokyo).
Cartografado, Pires’ fourth studio album , released at the end of April 2020, reveals the singer’s ability to make fado even more world-wise but also even more fado, singing her own way. The “Cartografado World Tour” began in May 2021 with concerts in Portugal, Spain, France, Czech Republic, Romania, and a tour of Austria with 10 concerts (Sept./Oct.2022) and ended on 29 November 2023 at the Teatro de la Audiencia in Soria (Spain).
20 years after joining Ocarina Music, Carla Pires celebrates this milestone with the release of her fifth career-spanning album VaiVem in June 2024, followed by the ‘20th Anniversary Tour’.